Six months after Baptist minister Matt Baker’s murder arrest in the April 2006 death of his wife, McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest said Tuesday that there’s not enough evidence to seek an indictment.

“Based on what has been presented to us, that matter is not suitable for presentation to a grand jury,” Segrest said in the wake of an order issued Tuesday to dismiss the “criminal accusation and prosecution” of Baker and to refund the $200,000 cash bond that was put up to secure his release from jail in October.

Baker’s attorney, Guy James Gray, of Kerrville, filed an application for writ of habeas corpus last week, seeking the return of his cash bond and alleging that the former Central Texas minister from Hewitt was unlawfully arrested and detained in the death of his wife, Kari.

Because he wasn’t indicted within 180 days of his arrest, Baker, 36, was entitled by law to have his cash bail bond refunded. Therefore, there was no reason for a hearing, which Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court had set for April 4 and canceled Tuesday with his rejection of Gray’s application.

“It wasn’t a discretionary act,” Segrest said, speaking of his office’s agreement to an order issued Tuesday by Justice of the Peace Billy Martin to discharge Baker’s bail bond. “It was an act based solely on the passage of time. It does not dispose of the criminal charges in the least. Those matters are still under consideration by this office.”

Hewitt police, who obtained an arrest warrant for Baker with the cooperation of the Texas Rangers, alleged that Baker, who reportedly had a mistress, rendered his wife unconscious with sleeping pills, then suffocated her with a pillow from their bedroom as their two daughters slept down the hall.

Baker, who has denied he killed his wife and said he wasn’t having an affair with a woman from his church in Lorena, told Hewitt police that his wife committed suicide because she remained despondent over the death of a daughter in 1998 from cancer.

A friend of Kari Baker and her counselor both have said that she told them she feared her husband would try to kill her after she found crushed pills in his briefcase.

Segrest declined additional comment about the case. However, Hewitt police Capt. Tuck Saunders and Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon both said Tuesday that the district attorney’s office has not asked them to conduct additional investigations in the case since Baker was arrested in Kerrville in September.

“We are waiting to hear back from them, but we haven’t heard anything. Not yet,” Saunders said. “We will discuss it with them. If they need something else, then we definitely are going to check into it.”

Gray, a longtime prosecutor in Jasper before retiring and moving to Kerrville, said he’s pleased that Baker will be getting his cash bail bond back. He added that he isn’t surprised by Segrest’s current assessment of the case.

“I think Mr. Segrest is a man of integrity,” Gray said. “I think what anybody would say is that there is insufficient technical evidence to make the elements of the case. That may change in the future, it may not. I know this doesn’t rule out a future indictment if the evidence changes, but I think it is a statement that the current evidence is insufficient.”

Kari Baker’s mother, Linda Dulin, said Tuesday that she remains hopeful her former son-in-law will be prosecuted.

“This is routine,” she said of the bail motion. “After 180 days, you get your money back if you haven’t been indicted. I have been assured that the DA’s office is working on this case, and I have every reason to believe that it will go to the grand jury and eventually to trial.”

The Dulins, who pressed Hewitt police to reopen the investigation into Kari’s death, refiled a wrongful death lawsuit against Baker last week to preserve their right to do so before the two-year statute of limitations expires April 7.

The suit alleges Baker killed their daughter, then made her death appear as a suicide. The Dulins dismissed the suit after Baker’s arrest, saying they didn’t want their suit to interfere with criminal prosecution of the case.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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